Project 52 | Lesson 12
Well It’s about half way through the year and I’m still doing this even though I’ve only done 12 so far. Oh well. I figure only a handful of people even look anyway so I shouldn’t stress myself right?
Father’s Day!
Yes, Daddy has seen this already. We celebrated Father’s Day today instead of tomorrow (well, we will celebrate tomorrow too but celebrating Saturday afforded Daddy the chance to sleep in which we can’t do on Sundays because of church). My kiddos were VERY excited to take this picture surprise and didn’t even spill the beans!
But I’m having a hard time thinking of a good lesson to share so instead I’m going to say what lessons I’ve learned.
I’ve learned that it’s hard to truly fully appreciate your own parents until you become a parent. This is not a knock on people who don’t have children, it’s just that there have been moments while I’m in my 4th hour of driving around town for the day or sitting on the hard floor of a dance studio or maneuvering around the gymnastics equipment helping a toddler do cartwheels with a baby strapped to my chest, that I’ve thought “yup, my parents did this for me and I took it for granted” and I think at the time it was happening in my childhood, I knew that. But what I didn’t realize was that yes, my parents made sacrifices for me and yes they were often tedious and mind numbingly boring (watching me run at a track meet, eek!) or expensive or stressful or any number of emotions but as a mom I realized that even though sometimes parenting involves all those things I still love doing it and I wouldn’t want it any other way and I can only guess that my mom and dad felt the same way watching me and my brothers and that was something that I didn’t realize at the time. It never occurred to me that they would find beauty in the mundane aspects of shaping your children into who they will become. Kiddos, sometimes you hear parents say “Someday I hope you have kids who are just like you!” And it’s not exactly said in a positive way. But instead today I’m going to say, “Kids, someday I hope you have kids and you enjoy them the way I enjoy you.” Thank you for making me a mother and thank you for making your Daddy a father. This day is our day to honor him the way you all honored me a few weeks ago but really I have to give it all over you YOU, my dears and to my own parents for this moment in time and all that came before it and all that will come after it that we get to be a family.